Vista Jury Convicts Man in Rest Stop Shooting of Snack Wagon Vendor, 56

Eric Hazelgrove, accused of shooting a lunch wagon vendor at a freeway rest stop, was convicted Thursday of two counts of attempted murder, fleeing recklessly to avoid capture and possession of a weapon by a felon.

Hazelgrove, described during the trial in Vista Superior Court as man who suffers from severe depression, sat impassively beside his attorney as the verdicts were read.

His attorney, public defender Barbara McDonald, said she will appeal the conviction.

Hazelgrove, 30, of Southeast San Diego, claimed he didn’t shoot 56-year-old Lee Harrell as he stood near his lunch wagon at the San Aliso rest stop, then followed Harrell as the wounded vendor tried to escape and emptied his gun into the fallen man.

The Aliso Creek rest stop is located along Interstate 5 north of Oceanside.

Jury foreman Mark Nelson said there were “heated debates” among panel members, mainly over points of testimony by witnesses to the shooting. He said that the main reason for the 2 1/2-day deliberation was differing opinions on whether Hazelgrove had thought about shooting Harrell when he first approached the snack wagon vendor.

After nearly two days of deliberation, the jurors asked to have testimony of witnesses reread before voting unanimously that the first murder attempt was not premeditated. They also voted unanimously that a second attempt to murder Harrell was “willful, deliberate and premeditated.”

Hazelgrove, a diagnosed manic-depressive, took the stand during his trial to deny that he had ever been near the scene of the shooting last Aug. 8. He said it could have been a case of mistaken identity or that others might have “set me up.”

McDonald said her client “has been very subdued” during the jury’s deliberation. “He tends toward depression,” the attorney said. She said that she would attempt to persuade Hazelgrove to submit to a psychiatric examination, but that without his permission, she was powerless to obtain such data or to use it in his defense.

Judge Irma Gonzalez set a June 7 sentencing date. Deputy Dist. Atty. Greg Walden said that the guilty verdicts could bring Hazelgrove a life sentence in prison, with possibility of parole.

According to testimony at the trial, Hazelgrove arrived at the rest stop about 6:30 a.m. with two companions, Kerry and Jennie Wagner. After a few minutes of conversation between Kerry Wagner and another lunch wagon vendor, John Mobley, over borrowing some packets of mayonnaise, witnesses said Hazelgrove walked over to the snack truck that Harrell operated and, without apparent reason, shot the man once in the stomach.

When Harrell shouted that he was hit and tried to escape, Hazelgrove followed him to the rear of the lunch wagon and shot at him five times, wounding him four more times. Harrell testified that he still carries two of the bullets, one near his spine and one near his heart, but will not agree to further surgery because of his fear that he will be paralyzed.

According to witnesses to the shooting, Hazelgrove walked casually back to his truck where the two women were waiting, and drove off. When a San Clemente police officer spotted Hazelgrove’s truck heading north on I-5, he gave chase and radioed for support.

Law enforcement officers testified that Hazelgrove drove recklessly trying to evade capture, weaving in and out of freeway traffic at speeds of 85 to 90 m.p.h., drove the wrong way on one-way streets and once left a freeway off-ramp and drove down an ice plant-covered embankment and returned to the freeway.

Walden said that Hazelgrove still faces two charges for alleged offenses he committed while in the Vista Jail while awaiting trail. One count alleges Hazelgrove fashioned a knife from a spoon; the other involves an alleged attack on a fellow prisoner while the two were in a holding cell.

Walden said that the attack occurred while Hazelgrove had his wrists chained to a restraint belt, so Hazelgrove used his feet to try to kick and stomp the other prisoner. Hazelgrove said during the trial that he had not attacked the other prisoner, explaining that he had only tried to defend himself.

The jailhouse charges will be dismissed after Hazelgrove’s sentencing on the rest stop shooting, Walden said.